THE Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently released The CDC Childhood Injury Report: Patterns of Unintentional Injuries Among 0- to 19-Year Olds in the United States, 2000-2006. According to the report,1 more than 54 million children from birth to age 19 were treated in emergency departments for unintentional injuries from 2001 to 2006 and 73 052 died as a result of their injuries from 2000 to 2005.2 Unintentional injuries were a leading cause of deaths and nonfatal injuries among children in the United States.
The report uses data from the National Vital Statistics Systems and the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System-All Injury Program to provide an overview of patterns of childhood unintentional injury in the United States related to drowning, falls, fires or burns, transportation (eg, motor vehicle crashes), poisoning, and suffocation, among others. The burden of deaths and nonfatal injuries due to each cause is presented by age group and sex, as well as the geographic distribution of injury death rates by state.
The report can be helpful to state and local health officials and advocates in prioritizing programs targeting their at-risk populations, to researchers tracking trends or evaluating prevention activities, to policy makers at all levels determining the best use of limited public health resources, as well as to the general public in identifying injury-prevention strategies for themselves, their families, and their communities.
The report was produced to coincide with the WHO/UNICEF launch of the World Report on Child Injury Prevention (http://www.who.int/violence_injury_prevention/child/injury/world_report/en/). In 2009, the CDC launched the Protect the Ones You Love initiative to help parents to keep their children injury-free. State specific data, podcasts, planning guides, and other tools are available at http://www.cdc.gov/SafeChild. The CDC Childhood Injury Report is available at http://www.cdc.gov/SafeChild/ChildhoodInjuryReport.
Nagesh Borse, PhD, MS
mailto:[email protected]
David A. Sleet, PhD, FAAHB
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
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